Another puzzle
by elgatonintendero
Summary: It's a crossover between TBBT and Dr. House. It's sets 15 years in the future. When Sheldon gets sick, Amy and their children ask to a famous diagnosticator to treat him.
1. Chapter 1

_After Mary's death, her children read the will, where it said that she decided to leave all her money to Georgie and Missy, while the house was in Sheldon's name._

 _Sheldon and Amy got job offers in Medford, and they decided to move there. After all, they had family, good jobs and a house with garden and a barbecue._

 _In that house, they built a family formed by them and their 3 kids, named Iain L., Rachel M., and James G. Cooper._

 _After getting the divorce, Larry moved near to his daughter's family, to help them._

* * *

It was a normal evening in the Cooper house. Iain is 14 years old and he's hanging out with his friends, while Rachel and James, 9-year-old-twins are in the kitchen. James is playing with his Nintendo Switch while Rachel reads "Brief History of Time" in silence. Amy saw that Sheldon was taking a nap and he wasn't feeling good the entire day, so she decided to cook while he slept.

Suddenly, she heard him calling her:

\- Amy! Can you come here?

\- I'm cooking.

\- I really need you. Come in here.

\- Fine…

When she arrived at the living room, she saw her husband different. His face was red, and he was sweating a lot. His breathing was heavy and irregular, and his right hand was pressing his left arm.

\- Something's wrong. – he whispered with a weak voice.

\- Relax. – she said while she took his temperature. No fever. She decided to take his pulse. It was high. Dangerously high.

\- Why are you holding your arm?

\- It's been bothering me for a while.

\- Alright, wait here for a minute. We are going to the hospital.

 _In the kitchen:_

\- Kids, Grandpa is coming to watch you. I have to go.

\- Where?

\- Your Dad's not feeling good…We're going to go see a doctor.

\- Is he okay?

\- He is going to be fine. Just stay right there. Don't move. Sheldon let's go!

 _In the kitchen, 15 minutes later:_

\- I hope daddy's gonna be okay.

\- I'm sure he will, Jim. Don't worry.

\- Hey. What's going on? – Iain said when he saw his grandfather there instead of his parents.

\- Dad's in the hospital.

\- What?! Why is Dad in the hospital?!

\- He has chest pains.

\- He's gonna be fine. We're going to stay here, have dinner and wait for your Mom to tell us what's what.

\- I'm not hungry…

* * *

 _In the hospital:_

\- Nurse! My husband has all the symptoms of a heart attack. Can we, _please_ , see a doctor?

\- Sorry, ma' am. We have a lot of work today. If you'll follow me.

\- Thank you. Come on, honey. Can you walk? Lean on me, lean on me.

* * *

 _In the twins' room:_

\- I can't sleep. How about you?

\- Same. Every time the phone rings, I shudder.

\- Me too.

 _(Someone knocked the door)_

\- Hey, I'm going to the hospital to see Dad. Do you guys want to come?

\- How? Mom and Pops said we must stay here.

\- Are you coming or not? Guys is not like we're stealing his car. I called an Uber.

\- Fine. We're in.

* * *

 _In the hospital:_

\- We've been looking for Dad for almost half an hour. Why don't we ask?

\- Because we are children without any adult around, bro. It would raise suspicions.

\- Hey, where's Jim?- Rachel asked, after a while of silence.

\- He was right… there he is. Hey, Jimmy!

But seeing that their brother looked hypnotized, they got closer. When they got next to him and looked into the room, they saw their parents. Their father was in the hospital bed, his eyes were half closed and his face had a painful look while a bunch of doctors run tests on him. Meanwhile, their Mom was holding his hand tightly. She looked like a woman on the edge. Did she cried? Oh, God. Mom doesn't cry.


	2. Chapter 2

Iain, Rachel and Jim kept looking at their parents, untill the older Cooper Kid broke the silence:

\- Mom?

As soon as she heard her older's son voice calling her, Amy excused herself and left the room.

\- What are you kids doing here? How did you get here in the first place? Where's your grandpa?- Amy said without breathing.

\- Where here to see Dad, I called an Uber and Pops's home.

\- He doesn't you're here, does he?

\- Nope.

\- Okay, I'm texting him so he doesn't freak out when he finds out you are not there.

\- How's Dad? - Rachel spoke for the first time since they met their mother.

\- W-well he's...going to be fine. You kids don't have to worry.

\- If Dad's okay, why have you been crying? - James replied, determined to get the truth out Amy.

\- Fine, you got me. After we got here and we finally got a nurse to pay us some attettion, we were following her and...

\- And?

\- Your Dad went paler, holded his chest with his free hand and passed out. I got really scared then and when they got him on a stretcher and put a heart rate monitor on him. His was very high and he eventually went into a cardiac arrest. They used the desfibrillator and I got scared. - Amy said with difficulty.

\- Dad was...he was technically _dead_?

Their mother's silence ansewered that question.

\- Can we see him? - Rachel said shyly.

\- I'm sure he'll be happy to see you guys. Follow me.


	3. Chapter 3

Iain was always a daddy's boy.  
Ever since he could remember.  
And before that.  
Lots of people have told him how he would stare at what Sheldon was doing or ask where he was (when they weren't together and Iain already knew how to talk) when he was a toddler. I mean, the two of them were always running around together. They went fishing, watched football together and even play it when uncle George came to visit.  
Because of his close relationship with his dad and the very numerous similarities between them, people would often call him things like Junior, Sheldon's shadow and Shelly Cooper 2.0.  
And he actually enjoyed. It's not like and insult or something like that. In fact, his own family had called him Junior a few times.  
So, if in the Cooper house there were some sort of teams, Iain was definitely in "Team Dad".  
Team Mom was formed by Amy and James, and Team Pops, by Larry and Rachel, because she was always the neutral one, who liked and loved both of her parents the same.  
Knowing that, to say that Iain was intimidated by the situation would be put it very slight. He was terrified, totally freaked out in the inside.  
He had his poker face on, so his mother and siblings wouldn't notice his fears. But he already knew that his father was gonna see right through him as soon as he laid eyes on him.  
To imagine his dad on a hospital bed, with doctors all around him, taking about what was wrong with Sheldon and if they could fix it or not, was already to much to handle.  
But when his mother told them that he had had a cardiac arrest, Iain's mind stopped working, just like Sheldon's heart had stopped beating a while ago.  
All he could think about, was that his old man was very close to not making it and that he was literally dead. Sure, only for like minute and a half, but he was dead anyway. They were very close of becoming orphans and their mother, a widow.  
And it could still happen, that was the worst part. This wasn't over. Not yet.  
Sheldon was now, 53 years old. Middle age. But this (whatever it is) could be hereditary. And Granpa George died when he was just 50. None of them knew the cause of it, thought. Only Dad, his siblings and his late mother knew.  
Iain was so caught up in his own head that he didn't notice how worried Jim looked until know. And it was weird. He and Sheldon didn't have the best relationship.  
Iain always thought that his brother hated both him and their father, for the way he looked at them, and wouldn't respond to nice comments coming from them. He was always giving them an "I hate you" look whenever he saw them together. Since Rachel was his twin sister and a very perceptive kid, he asked them if she knew what was wrong with their brother. She looked at him, surprised that he didn't know the reason and told the truth.  
James was mommy's baby boy since the day he was born, but even then, he was jealous of the so close relationship between their father and his big brother. Everytime he somehow captured Sheldon's attention, Iain would appear and that was it. What was so special about Iain that he didn't have?  
So, he was the first born, big deal.  
There was a while when Amy had to work more and she was home less often. Because of that, she couldn't be with James that much, so he started to feel left out and mad. But not mad at Amy, mad at Sheldon, because even when their mother wasn't home, he focus on his favorite, and sometimes in Rachel, because she was the only daughter. And he had nothing, because he was "the other son", at least for his dad.

He started to treat Sheldon and Iain even more cold than usual. One day, that he gave Sheldon a sassy answer, his father lost his temper and shouted:

\- JAMES GEORGE COOPER, WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?! You're gonna apologize to both me and your brother immediately. And you're grounded until I say otherwise, young man!

God, all he wanted to do in that moment was to burst into tears and scream that he needed more attention from his father, that he didn't wanna be the other boy, and that he would also love to go fishing and to watch football.  
Instead, he said nothing but a quiet "sorry" and, half an hour later, when Sheldon apologized for yelling at him, his answer was a whisper that said " it's fine" without even making eye contact.  
Since that, there haven't been any fights, but not any kind of contact between father and son either.  
James was worried that Sheldon would die without them being able to bond a little, apologize for the past and turn the page. Have a normal father and son relationship. It's not like they would have to do everything together, they would still go with Amy and Iain. But once in a while, they could do something together and/or alone.

* * *

And then there was Rachel.  
She was worried and scared of course. Who wouldn't?  
But unlike her brothers, she wasn't afraid of losing her master and best friend, nor she felt guilty over their relationship not going so well, since they sometimes hang out together and have a good time.  
She was afraid of losing her Dad. She admired and loved Sheldon, just as much as Amy, and there was nothing that she regretted saying or doing, so guilt wasn't the problem.  
Rachel knew that if the worst happens and Sheldon dies, she and Pops would have to be the family's rock. And she wouldn't be able to handle it, because she would have just lost her Dad. But she was also aware that in that case, Iain, Amy and Jim would be a wreck.  
Amy would have just lost her husband, the man she had spent the last 23 years of her life with. And it would totally break her down. They were supposed to grow old together and, if now they couldn't, their Mom would be a mess.  
Iain.  
God, Iain.  
If Sheldon died, he would lose not only his father, but also his master, his best friend, his confident, his advisor, his idol, his role model, his intellectual stand point, his fishing buddy, his football "coach"...the list goes on and on.  
And James would be totally heartbroken, just like the rest of them, but with more pain added because of the feeling of guilt  
for all the times he didn't treat Sheldon well. And wishing that he have had the guts to tell him how he felt.  
And the pain for her father's death would already be too much. She couldn't bear to see her family like that too.  
So, she just sat in silence, praying to Blaise Pascal that her Dad and family would be fine.


End file.
